Bluebeard, Brahmin Girl, and Don Firriuliddu

Among the striking resemblances among Perrault’s version of “Bluebeard,” ”Brahmin Girl,” and ”Don Firriulieddu” is the portrayal of the vulnerability of female characters and their eventual rescue by caring and heroic brothers. These stories also shared the dark theme of the dangers that lurk in the lives of the young female personas because of the patriarchal order that restricts their freedoms and liberties through the institution of marriage. In the three stories, marriage is portrayed as a restrictive and suppressive reality that condemns girls or women to a life of misery and brutality all through their lives. The resident evil within the institution of marriage reveals itself in the sinister motives and evil demeanor of the male villains that marry the young girls. Notably, all the girls in the three stories are forced into their respective abusive marriages.

            The three stories portray the male characters as villains who rely on certain advantages to deny the young girls of freedom and happiness. The Bluebeard is portrayed as a despicable character with an atrocious disposition that reveals in the sadistic pleasure, which he derives from marrying and killing young girls. He is about to kill the girl when her sister and brothers arrive for rescue. In ”Don Firriulieddu,” the ogre is presented as an evil schemer that takes advantage of the unsuspecting girl and forces her into the brutal marriage (Crane 15). The stories are also related in the sense that the villains are destroyed in the end. The moment of rescuing the girls acquire special significance because it marks the vanquishing of the evil order by supplanting it with a sense of justice. In one respect, the three stories could be studied from a feminist angle of redeeming the subjugated female characters.

Work Cited

Crane, Thomas, F. Italian Popular Tales. Macmillan and Company, 2014.